sinking of Laurentic and Patroclus the Admiralty decided to abolish the Northern Patrol except for the patrol of the Denmark Strait, the Faroes–Iceland gap to be left to trawlers and the minefields. Surplus ships were to be diverted to the Western Patrol. The average number of ships on the Northern Patrol was cut to five out of the eleven ships left, with three on the Western Patrol. The Northern Patrol checked fifteen ships and the Western Patrol 155, three from the latter being sent under guard for inspection. Klaus Schoke (5,800 GRT) of the Hansa Line departed on 1 December for Ponta Delgada in the Azores for Vigo in Spain but was stopped by the AMC California. The crew tried to scuttle the ship and despite an attempt to save the ship it sank on 5 December. On the Northern Patrol, Forfar had refitted at Liverpool, sailed on 30 November escorted by a destroyer, which was ordered back near midnight on 1 December. Forfar was ordered to divert south around a U-boat said to be in the area of 54° 23' N and 20° 11' west. Course was changed and before joining the Western Patrol, was diverted to escort the eastbound Convoy SC 14. Forfar sailed near Convoy HX 90 by coincidence, which was being shadowed by four U-boats; at 03:30 the lookouts spotted something but the captain of Forfar decided to maintain the zig-zag and at 04:40 Forfar was struck by a torpedo. Within the hour, four more torpedoes hit the ship; many of the lifeboats were caught in the explosions making an organised evacuation impossible, many men going into water slicked with oil. , a straggler from HX 90, which had fought off a surface attack by , arrived on the scene and rescued some survivors, a Sunderland flying boat managed to miss others but destroyers rescued the remaining survivors during the next afternoon. Members of the crew had been killed in the torpedo explosions, others died of wounds and another 178 killed after abandoning ship; it was the worst disaster to the Northern Patrol since the sinking of Rawalpindi. See also Dover Patrol North Sea Mine Barrage Action of 4 April 1941 Notes References Bibliography Books Websites Further reading Books Theses External links Armed Merchant Cruiser List of Second World War AMCs Excerpt from the First World War Encyclopedia Royal Navy patrols North Sea operations of World